Omar Bin Laden

Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden's fourth eldest child Omar, has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital with drug-induced schizophrenia. His 54 year old English wife Jane Felix Browne changed her name to Zaine when they married. They were hoping to have a child with a surrogate mother living in England but have recently split up after he began to hear his father's voice in his head. His wife said she is heartbroken but couldn't cope anymore.

Omar has had several visa applications to live in Britain rejected and it was thought that if he had a child born in Britain, it might help him get a visa.

Zaina knew Omar had bipolar disorder when she met him. He had manic periods when he was very enthusiastic about everything then crashing lows when he was quiet and subdued and stayed in bed all day. Omar was Zaina's sixth husband. She blames her husband's troubles solely on his father and the terrorist atrocities he has caused. He loves and hates his father at the same time, he loves him because he's his father but hates what he's done. She thinks he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after 9/11 - seeing what his father had done ruined his life.

Omar has been living in Qatar and keeping in touch with his wife by phone and email every day at her home in England. Ten days ago she flew to Qatar and took him to a doctor. He was immediately referred to a psychiatric unit but after three days, he checked himself out and his bizarre behaviour continued. When he took the car out and was driving like a maniac with his wife in the car, she knew it had to end. When they got home, she told him she wanted a divorce and returned to England. She says she still loves him with all her heart but can't be with him until he's better.

Homeless Old Women in Sydney

Life is getting tough for single older women, especially if they lose their job. Sydney rents are through the roof, so high in fact, unless you are a couple with two incomes, they are out of reach for most people. So with the high rents, divorce and companies cutting back on staff, there's a recent surge in older women who find themselves homeless. Because the charities have only limited beds available, they are sleeping rough in Sydney. And it's winter.

Ludo McFerran from the Older women's Network says the lack of affordable housing in Australia, higher rates of divorce and separation and the tendency of women to be in lower paid jobs, have created a housing crisis for women in their 50's and 60's.

Single women who were able to stand on their own two feet are now finding themselves homeless and it can happen to anyone. Elizabeth 62, is an IT professional who says she found it hard to find work because of age discrimination. When the global financial crisis struck, Elizabeth could not afford to pay her mortgage so she was forced out of her home. She lived with friends for a while but when they moved interstate, she was left homeless. She's now in a refuge for older women in Sydney. It has just 10 beds and is run by the St Vincent de Paul Society with no government funding.

Experts say that homelessness increases the risk of mental health. I can believe it, it would send me crazy for sure. I was thinking about divorce and the friends I have who were once married but now find themselves single. Had my husband and I decided to go our separate ways and split everything down the middle, there wouldn't be enough to buy another property outright so I would probably put the money in the bank and rent. Over time, this money would be eroded away with the general expenses of living and I could find myself broke with nowhere to go. Because of my age as an older woman, I would probably find it hard to get another job. My husband on the other hand, would probably find work, even if it was driving a truck. His capacity to earn is far greater than mine.

So who should we blame? The Federal Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek was not available for comment. At the moment, there is no public housing, especially in Sydney. Families are paying a fortune to live in motels throughout the city with 2 adults and small children all living in one small room. On the tv last week we saw a young woman and 2 children living in a car.

So why are the rents so high? There are no figures to prove it , but I think it's because of 'investment properties'. People buy a flat/house and the rent pays off the mortgage - great idea. But the rents are so high, it takes two wages to pay for it and there's not much left over, certainly not enough to start saving for a deposit for your own property.

How many of your friends lost money on the stockmarket- it was a bolt from the blue. The Financial Advisor at the banks advised us that the share market was the way to go, so much better than a term deposit, if we looked back over time, shares were a great insurance for your retirement. Then the bottom fell out of the market. Funny that, how well we followed Gordon Gekko's advice that Greed is Good'.

But somehow it seems to have back-fired on us and what are we left with? Good people losing their homes, high unemployment and now, old ladies sleeping on the street. And it's finally caught up with the Lucky Country.

Terrorist Bombing of London 5 Years On

It's been five years since the 7/7 terror attack on the London Tube. Davinia Turrell survived the bomb at Edgware Road station but the ball of fire created in the carriage scorched the skin from the left side of her face. Thanks to the doctors at London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, her facial scars are gone.

She talked about her ordeal. "I walked through the entire length of the train. I remember people screaming and sounding shocked as I walked through the back carriages. I didn't realise I was injured, I was still in shock. I remember telling people that I needed to get to work."

"I went from being convinced that I would be seriously scarred for life and that my life would be ruined, to being hopeful that the medics who were looking after me would be able to put me back together as I had been before."

There was an unofficial ceremony held in Hyde Park on Wednesday to mark the fifth anniversary of the 7 July bombings. Survivors and familes of those who lost their lives laid flowers by 52 steel pillars which represent those killed.

Gill Hicks from Adleiade lost both legs in the bomb blast. See this amazing woman here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU3V2suLEbU

Tax breaks on donations to the West Bank

Proposals for a Palestinian state refer to the establishment of an independent state for the Palestinian people that have been occupied by Israel since the Six Day War of 1967 and before by Egypt (Gaza) and by Jordan (West Bank) since 1949. The proposals include the Gaza Strip which is currently controlled by the Hamas faction of the Palestinian National authority, the West Bank which is run by the Fatah faction of the Palestinian National Authority and East Jerusalem which is under Israeli administration.


The American government is seeking to end the forty year Jewish settlement and foster a Palestinian state in the West Bank. But the American Treasury has been helping to sustain the settlements through tax breaks on donations to support them.

There's a Christian Tennessee-based charity called HaYovel that believes helping Jewish winemakers in the occupied West Bank foretells the second coming of Christ. They invite volunteers to "labour side by side with the people of Israel" and to "share with them a passion for the soon coming jubilee in Yeshua, messiah."

But during their visit in February, the volunteers found themselves in the middle of a fight for land. When they went into the vineyards, they were pelted with rocks by Palestinians who say the settlers have planted creeping grape vines on their land to claim it as their own. Two volunteers were hurt and in the scuffle, a settler guard shot a 17 year old Palestinian shepherd in the leg.

"These people are filled with ideas that this is the Promised Land and their duty is to help the Jews" said Izdat Said Qadoos from the neighbouring Palestinian village. "It's not the Promised Land. It's our land."

HaYovel is one of many groups in the US using tax-exempt donations to help Jews establish permanence in the Israeli-occupied territories - effectively obstructing the creation of a Palestinian state, widely seen as a necessary condition for Middle East peace.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/world/middleeast/06settle.html?_r=1&hp

Benjamin Netanyahu

I wasn't impressed with Benjamin Netanyahu's smiling face as he met with President Obama today, pretending to be a man of peace. I don't think he's the right man for the job, he comes across as arrogant and aggressive.

He refused to apologise to the Turks - a previous ally - for the deaths of nine people on the flotilla to Gaza. Okay those nine were activists looking for a fight but never-the-less the final death toll was Turks 9, Israelis 0. If he finds it impossible to come half way and apologise for this event, it's clear he will not be receptive to any peace negotiations that don't meet his requirements.

Unfortunately hatred for the Jewish people is re-surfacing around the world and I think Benjamin Netanyahu isn't helping their cause.

It's illegal in Germany to preach hatred against the Jews or praise the Nazis in any way. Last month a German man was travelling on a train and had a speech by Adolf Hitler as his mobile phone ring tone. The 54 year old had the speech - in which Hitler pledged the "destruction of world Jewry" if Germany was "dragged" into war - programmed into his Nokia phone. Passengers aboard the train in Hamburg heard the ring tone several times during a journey and reported him to police who seied him at the end of his journey. When taken into custody, police found swastika stickers and photos of Hitler on the telephone with the words "The greatest commander of all time". Police in Europe are acting as decoys - dressing as Jews to try and catch the gangs of thugs who are roaming city streets beating them up. Are we rewinding to the 1930's?

President Obama has tried to stop him from displacing more Palestinians by building new units in the no-go zone but he charges ahead regardless. I think this man is resolute and difficult and has no compassion for the enemy. His hatred is so deep, he doesn't see anything but what he believes to be true - there will be absolutely no surrender - ever!

Dire Share Forecast for America

Robert Prechter, market forecaster, has made a dire prediction - get out of the market and into cash. If he's right, one analyst said "We'll have to go to the mountains with a gun and some cans of soup." He is convinced that we have entered a market decline - the biggest for 300 years.

His advice: individual investors should move completely out of the market and hold cash and cash equivalents like Treasury Bills for years to come. But ultimately "the decline will lead to one of the best investment opportunities ever" he said.

Buy and hold stock investors will be devastated in a crash much worse than the decline of the 2008 and early 2009 or the worst years of the Great Depression or the panic of 1873, he predicts. He goes all the way back to England and the collapse of the South Sea Bubble in 1720, a crash that deterred people "from buying stocks for 100 years. This time, he said "If I'm right, it will be such a shock that people will be telling their grandkids many years from now - "Don't touch stocks."

The Dow which now stands at 9,686.48 is likely to fall well below 1,000 over perhaps five or six years as a grand market cycle comes to an end. That unravelling, combined with a depression and deflation, will make anyone holding cash "extremely grateful for their prudence."

So what do they say to people watching the rise and fall of their share price every day? "Don't panic, don't panic, hold your nerve!" Read the whole article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/your-money/04stra.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general

Sydney Muslims told to shun Democracy

There is an organisation that is illegal in much of the Middle East but still operates in more than 40 countries. It's called called Hizb ut-Tahir or HT for short. They say they reject the use of violence to achieve their aims - an Islamic state - and the military destruction of Israel.

The British leaders of this organization were in Sydney on the weekend. Burham Hanif told 500 Muslims who attended their meeting to spurn democracy and western ideas of modern Islam - that democracy is "harem" (forbidden) for Muslims and should be based purely on Islamic law.

"We must adhere to Islam and Islam alone" he said "We should not be conned or succumb to the disingenuous and flawed narrative that the only way to engage politically is through the secular democratic process. It is prohibited and haram."

An Australian HT official Wassim Dourehi told the conference Muslims should not support "any kafir (non-believer) polical party because humans have no right to make laws." Mr Dourehi also urged Muslims to spurn the concept of moderate Islam promoted by governments in the west, including in "this godforsaken country" of Australia.

Well, well Mr Wassim Dourehi, did you pay for these people to come over from the UK to Australia to stir the pot? If the Muslim community in Sydney are the peace-loving people their spokesman Mr Trad tries tells us they are, why do they allow men like this to come here and preach hatred against their adopted country?

I don't know anything about the law but feel strongly that this preaching of hatred should be made illegal. I looked up the word Sedition. It is a term of law which refers to overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order. Surely this meeting would qualify?